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From: s37837k@saha.hut.fi (Jari Lehto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Midi on the ST...
Keywords: Help, email please
Message-ID: <1991Feb7.235717.14214@santra.uucp>
Date: 7 Feb 91 23:57:17 GMT
References: <2493@beguine.UUCP>
Sender: news@santra.uucp (Cnews - USENET news system)
Reply-To: s37837k@saha.hut.fi (Jari Lehto)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, FINLAND
Lines: 67

In article <2493@beguine.UUCP> Duncan.Lewis@samba.acs.unc.edu (Duncan Lewis) writes:
>
>1) Significance on the absence of a midi-thru port on the ST, anybody?

There is MIDI-thru in ST, I just don't know anybody who needs it...
It can be used with special cable or a small port-splitter.
I have never needed it.

>2) What cpu model is probably the best most economical but flexible one
>to choose, in terms of pricing, versatility, program compatibiltiy etc.

For musician I would say STacy, with at least 2Mb RAM and largest harddisk 
available. If you don't need to carry it around, any will do. I would say
Mega4 or TT with big screen (19") is ideal, but rather expensive. MegaSTE is
also good for serious use. Only important thing is that the system has mono-
monitor and enough RAM & Disk-space. MIDI-stuff eats a lot.
I personally use a 1040STFM transferred to tower-housing, with 4Mb RAM and
170Mb harddisk. There is also a 16MHz accelerator. By the way, this tower
has MIDI-thru port also.

>3) Your opinion of general software for Midi use, brands, names anything will
>help.  

I have tried many. The German firm Steinberg won the competition in my case.
I use Cubase 2.0 for sequencing & editing and Avalon for controlling & editing
sample(r)s. There is also a good universal instrument editor called Uniman.
It supports almost any well-known synthesizer/sampler. I have Ensoniq VFX,
being one of the main instruments I use, and there are no serious editors
for it other than Uniman. I bet there are other instruments with similar
situation. The Uniman is from Nederlands.
Only disadvantage in these is that these are propably the most expensive
applications there are. Cubase costs over 500 pounds in the UK...

>4) Why use an ST instead of the Mac or Yamaha/Casio etc.

Mac is a good alternative! But only Atari offers built in MIDI and
top-level software and hardware support for musician.
Still, Mac has all those fancy MIDI-applications, like Finale...

>5) Other interesting hardware implementations, like SMPTE equipment etc.

Those are offered by Steinberg also, for example. There are others also, but
they are not very familiar to me.
SMPTE is well supported with Atari. So is Sample-transfer via SCSI.

>6) What your setup is and how productive has it made you.

I already told about my ST and software. Here are the instruments:
	My personal ones:
	Ensoniq VFX, Korg M3R
	Ones offered by sponsors and friends, etc.:
	Korg T3, Korg WaveStation, Korg M1, Ensoniq EPS 16+, E-MU Proteus,
	Akai S1000, SynthAxe.... and others not so frequently used.
I have composed & produced about four hours of music, same style like
Jarre, Vangelis, Kitaro, Blenner, Hammer...
I just need to master it to DAT and send it for someone to decide if
it will be released in a form of CD. It took about a year to do it.

>7) ANything of value you'r like to add including flames etc

???????????


			Jartsu


	*** Jari Lehto, jartsu@otax.hut.fi, s37837k@saha.hut.fi ***